written by David Steffen
Well-Told Tales was a pulp fiction podcast which also produced some short films, run by Kevin Colligan and which was active from about 2007 to 2009. They ran stories in the mystery, horror, and science fiction genres. That’s… pretty much all I know because the site itself is no longer maintained and there doesn’t seem to be a good source of the information that I can find. I was able to find the episodes for download here on Archive.org although unfortunately that is only their numbered episodes, which does not include their short films or their serially-released full-cast production of the comedy superhero story “I Killed Awesome Man”. I found another listing that has 5 of 8 episodes of “I Killed Awesome Man” here. I haven’t had any luck finding the full “I Killed Awesome Man” for download–if someone knows where to find it, please post a link in the comments. One nice thing about the Creative Commons podcast licenses is that it’s completely legitimate for a third-party site to post an archive of episodes even when the original site is no longer maintained.
Overall, I thought the quality of the show was kind of uneven, even accounting for my general disinterest in the mystery genre–quite a few of the stories were full of tired overused ideas and didn’t really do anything new with them. But some of the episodes were good, and I liked enough of them to make the list.
1. Parliament of Me by Patrick Hurley
Man has a vision where he meets all of the alternate selves he could’ve become, who are now voting to decide which one gets to be the real person.
2. Fourth Wall by Maddie Ward
A boy is worried for his sister who’s started talking to herself in her room, narrating her life as if she has an audience, but is there someone actually watching?
3. Tequila by Finn Colgan
The horrors you find at the bottom of a tequila bottle
4. I Used to Love Her by Theodore Carter
A tale of a relationship turned sour. Also, she might not really be human anymore.
5. The David by Jonathan Kravetz
A woman has lost her Will to Live, literally, and a detective is hired to find that Will to Live and bring it back.
Honorable Mention
The 30-Day Baby Company by Darren Callahan
